I had a conversation with a coworker a couple days ago about whether leadership can be taught. Can you make somebody into a great leader? If so, then why are so many people bad at leading? I really have no idea. But what I am far more certain about is whether there are natural born leaders; I’m sure there are, and I’m sure it was one of them.
Something about Feynman’s voice, about his way of seeing and thinking about the world, makes me respond quite automatically. I stop being skeptical; I’ll trust anything he says. As soon as he starts talking, I’m instantly won over. It’s strange. I’m not particularly prone to hero worship; and I’m generally very distrustful of leaders. Yet all of my natural cynicism and distrust are dispersed like a puff of air when faced with Feynman's charm.
I’m not sure this says more about me or about Feynman. Perhaps I’m just particularly susceptible to his appeal. But I suspect that it isn’t just me, and that many others respond this way too. There is some mysterious element in his personality that everyone seems to notice. In another review, Manny suggested that Feynman might have been a mystic. I admit that I scoffed at the suggestion at the time. But now I think it’s very insightful. For there is something quasi-religious about Feynman’s combination of naïveté, simplicity, and keen wonder at the natural world; there is something indeed mystical about his way of cutting through everything distracting and irrelevant, of putting aside all unhelpful conventions, and getting to the core of the issue.
Well, on to the book. This is the more serious older brother of Surely You’re Joking. The lighthearted tone that enlivened the earlier book is here almost absent. To the contrary, the second chapter of this book, which tells the story of Feynman’s first wife, is downright tragic. And the story of Feynman’s involvement with the Rogers Commission, investigating the Challenger Shuttle disaster, is detailed and lengthy. The materials collected into this book do feel like they’ve been thrown together; the parts don’t form a unified whole. But taken individually, everything here is well worth reading, both for the insight into Feynman’s character, and the exploration of institutional NASA stupidity.
It’s a good thing Feynman is dead. If he was alive, I might have to quit my job and study physics under him, and that wouldn’t be fun for either of us—since I’d be a dull student.
